By RANOBA BAOA
Viti Mining Limited is shipping 2500-tonne trial shipment of manganese ore to Australian-based BHP Tasmanian Electro Metallurgic Company (TEMCO).
This after the company was given a licence to mine on its Special Prospecting Licenses (SPL) for manganese ore in Nasaucoko on Vorovorobitu deposit site this year.
500 tonnes of this will be first sent on September 14 from Lautoka.
This was confirmed by Viti Mining chief financial controller, Wilson Michael.
“If this is successful then it leads to longer terms of supply contract. We are targeting as much as 5000 tonnes per month to ship to TEMCO once we’re up fully operational on mining next year,” Mr Michael said.
And with BHP TEMCO considering Fiji as one of the smaller supply countries in the region, Mr Michael said this was huge for the company.
“For Viti Mining to secure an arrangement like that with BHP is signficant . It puts us on the map as a supplier. And it also helps with continuing of development in mining in Fiji.”
Prior to mining approval on its tenement deposit site, the company had been exploration since it started in 2006.
“For the past few years, what we’ve been doing is preparing in exploration, securing permits and licences. And now we’ve got the approval for production.”
In preparation for its first shipment next month, the company is preparing the manganese ore deposits on its deposit site.
“We’ve manually dressed, meaning that broken the ore down into smaller sizes. Dressing is just chipping away the silica that’s attached to the ore, removing the non-manganese ore parts.”
Additionally the Viti Mining is waiting on more of its equipment to arrive in order to speed up production and ready it when it becomes fully operational in terms of mining.
“We’re continuing infrastructure development on the ground. When our mechanical plant arrives, we will then begin production for about 5000 tonnes a month. So we anticipate that by December the equipment will be installed and everything needed will be ready,” he said.